Thumb pain

Xtina

Xtina

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I have a tendon pain in my clutch thumb at the base. I assume it's from riding the clutch during rush hour. Is this something I can fix with bike mods or Just have to tough it out til my thumb muscles get bigger? And I don't have a death grip on the bar. I just seems to be the angle my thumb naturally wraps. Lol
 
You could try adjustable levers. I sometimes just use the heel of my hand on the grip if I'm starting to get a sore thumb. But then, I have hands made for a gorilla so reach isn't a problem for me.
 
Sometimes rotating the lever around the circumference of the bar a couple of degrees helps too. I adjust the levers on all my bikes when I first get them.
 
Baggsy said:
Sometimes rotating the lever around the circumference of the bar a couple of degrees helps too. I adjust the levers on all my bikes when I first get them.
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What he said..... try to keep the levers at the same angle as your arm.... so you might have to rotate them down a bit. Also, you do know that in most cases your bike can go forwards without giving it any gas in first gear.... as long as you aren't going up a hill. It's almost like an automatic except yes, if you hit the brakes a bit more than a very gentle touch, you will need to grab the clutch.
 
I had similar pain for the first month or two of riding, and it gradually went away on its own.
 
dblEspresso said:
I had similar pain for the first month or two of riding, and it gradually went away on its own.
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This is a strong possibility. Had the same for the first couple of months of riding and then it went away.

Metastable said:
What he said..... try to keep the levers at the same angle as your arm.... so you might have to rotate them down a bit. Also, you do know that in most cases your bike can go forwards without giving it any gas in first gear.... as long as you aren't going up a hill. It's almost like an automatic except yes, if you hit the brakes a bit more than a very gentle touch, you will need to grab the clutch.
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Adjusting the levers is easy and it can also help, especially with those rush hour commutes.
 
Happened to me for the first few days riding my sportster. It's got a pretty tough clutch compared to all the other bikes my girlfriend and I have had. Was used to it by week 2. Tough it out.
 
+1 on adjustable levers. I got my first bike(r6) with them on it already so I dint realize how awesome they are until a few weeks back when I was ridding my buddys triumph with stock levers.
 
What do adjustable levers do exactly? The amount of pressure it takes to disengage the clutch? How much do those generally cost?
 
I had the same pain in my first month of riding too but just like what adri said, you just need to tough it out.
 
Xtina said:
What do adjustable levers do exactly? The amount of pressure it takes to disengage the clutch? How much do those generally cost?
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No no - it is the same levers you have now. You just loosen the bolts that hold it in place and rotate it down a little and then tighten it back up again. All you are doing is making it more ergonomically correct. I find usually they are a little to parallel to the ground, but your arm is coming in at a say a 30-45 degree angle... so then you have to twist your hand up. By tilting the levers down a little your hand is more inline with your arm. BTW, you might want to do the same thing to your front brake lever.

It depends a bit on the bike of course.
 
For small riders, standard clutch and brake levers may be too widely spaced from the bar for their small hands. This forces the rider to overreach in order to pull the lever in, causing an unnatural movement. There are "dog leg" levers available that allow the rider to pull the lever but with less distance from the handlebar.

I do not know if this applies to you.

You should also consider lubing your clutch cable, if it is not hydraulic. The cable might have too much friction.
 
Metastable said:
No no - it is the same levers you have now. You just loosen the bolts that hold it in place and rotate it down a little and then tighten it back up again. All you are doing is making it more ergonomically correct. I find usually they are a little to parallel to the ground, but your arm is coming in at a say a 30-45 degree angle... so then you have to twist your hand up. By tilting the levers down a little your hand is more inline with your arm. BTW, you might want to do the same thing to your front brake lever.

It depends a bit on the bike of course.
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She was asking about adjustable levers since someone used that term in a post.

To the OP....Adjustable levers allow you to move the lever closer or further away from the bar. They do not make is easier to pull the lever, and actually if you get the short adjustable levers it makes it harder to pull the clutch. Main advantage of adjustable levers is to be able to move the lever closer to the bar if you have short fingers. What bike do you have now? Does your bike happen to have adjustable levers on it now?
 
bear22099 said:
She was asking about adjustable levers since someone used that term in a post. To the OP....Adjustable levers allow you to move the lever closer or further away from the bar. They do not make is easier to pull the lever, and actually if you get the short adjustable levers it makes it harder to pull the clutch. Main advantage of adjustable levers is to be able to move the lever closer to the bar if you have short fingers. What bike do you have now? Does your bike happen to have adjustable levers on it now?
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I have a cbr 250 and it doesn't have adjustable levers. My hands are big enough to reach comfortably, it's just the angle of my thumb and how it rests on the bars that's the problem.
 
Xtina said:
I have a cbr 250 and it doesn't have adjustable levers. My hands are big enough to reach comfortably, it's just the angle of my thumb and how it rests on the bars that's the problem.
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You should still be able to adjust the angle. Typically it involves a single screw that you loosen, adjust them for a more natural angle and tighten them. the entire procedure takes about 30sec (assuming you only need to adjust it once and you don't decide on additional tweaking).
 
One other thing to check is that your gloves fit well. Sometimes if the glove fingers are too short, it can lead to discomfort similar to what you're describing, or even numbness if longer term.
 
lol I love this post! I'm having some serious pain in my clutch thumb as well and this is a life saving post to me.
 
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